Conviction is the combination of clarity and courage. But what happens if you lack one of those? Here is a framework I have used with my team.
Clarity without courage is frustration. A leader who has a strong sense of what must happen
but lacks the courage to act is in a perpetual state of frustration. A lack of courage can also reveal misplaced identity in the leader, showing that the leader finds their worth in results instead of who God has declared them to be. Attaching your identity to the results will always curb courage because taking action will feel like a risk to your identity.
Courage without clarity is chaos. A leader who is courageous but does not have clarity creates chaos for everyone. You have met this leader. They return from a conference with a new vision, then read a new book on vacation and return with yet another new direction, lacking the awareness to realize that some of the directions are actually contradictory. The leader who lacks clarity is trying to build many things at once but only ends up tearing down a lot of things. You can’t build unless you know what needs to be built.
A lack of courage results in frustration. A lack of clarity results in chaos.
